Two websites to recommend

The first of my favorite websites would be the American Library Association website because you can quickly access all kinds of lists of books including banned books and winners of various book awards. Recently we had education students come in and need to find two Newberry Award books and I quickly located the list on ALA. http://www.ala.org/

My second favorite would be Follett Titlewave. I used this resource at my school to locate information on books and get cataloging information for books that didn't come with pre-ordered downloads. There is so much more information on this site, including award lists from different states.I couldn't live without it before and I'm using it at my new position as well. http://www.titlewave.com/

Wrapping it up

I learned so much doing these exercises. Since I just moved to the state and previously worked at an intermediate school, I wasn't familiar with many of these. I hope to get my patrons at the university to access them for research as well as the public that come in to use the library.

Additional Information on Ancestry

I went back and looked at pictures from South Dakota baseball players. I found one that was from Kansas, my previous state of residence.

Ancestry Library

I didn’t find anything under my own name. I do know there are at least two other Marsha Lytle’s in the U.S. though, both who are also librarians. I have lived in fourteen states, had seven kids, and two marriages and divorces, so I was surprised nothing came up.

This is the one lesson I got distracted on and went all over the place. I started by searching in my father’s side of the family because we don’t know much about the early Lytle’s. They are a mystery I haven’t yet unraveled. I did find an obituary for my father’s sister in the Battle Creek, Michigan newspaper. When I noticed my aunt’s, I saw that one of my cousins had died. The obit should have come up, but didn’t which was very frustrating. I did, however, located my great-grandfather in an earlier census than I had found before, which gave me a few clues to follow up on. I thought he was born in West Virginia, which might be true because that was before it split from Virginia.

I don’t know what I did wrong, but I did not find the Photos and Map tab in Ancestry.

In Heritage Quest I found my ancestor’s Revolutionary Pension files. Michael Young enrolled in North Carolina but lived in Kentucky when he filed for his pension years later. I also did some research on Port Tobacco, Maryland where some of my earliest American ancestor’s lived in the 1600’s. The Dent Family had quite a few entries in the Historical Society of Charles County, Maryland.

In Sanborn Maps I started out with Rapid City where I was born and lived for a few months on Ellsworth AFB, but wasn’t able to locate that. I search Pierre instead in its early days (1884) to see if I recognized anything from my two very brief visits, but I didn’t.

ArchiveGrid and CAMIO

Archive Grid

Sitting Bull autograph card. I totally failed on this one. I tried many different combinations but never located it on this resource.

For the second part I researched Frederick Remington and located a painting of his entitled “Dismounted the Fourth Trooper Moving the Lead Horse” owned by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamston, Massachusetts. This oil painting depicts the Battle of Little Bighorn. I also located a photograph by Arnold Genthe held by the Library of Congress entitled “One Washington Place” of Chinatown, San Francisco.

1. Paul Revere. There were many photos of Paul Revere’s metalwork including: tea service, teaspoon, tea urn, sugar bowl. Cream pot, sauceboat, goblet, wine canister, tankard, Son s of Liberty Bowl, candlesticks, etc.

2. When I searched under Sioux I discovered many artifacts including” scalp shirt, gauntlets, coat, blanket strip, pipe bulls and pipe stems, tobacco pouch and pipes, dolls, jewelry, quilt, sculpture, war club, blanket, double saddle bags, etc. These included photographs, drawings, paintings, pen and ink, and colored pencil.

3. Favorite artist. I picked Andy Warhol who I thought of mostly for paintings, but was surprised that he also was a photographer. There were photographs included of many prominent people including celebrities. I combined some of the Andy Warhol in the favorite’s section to make a slide show.

WorldCat Lesson 7

1.       For WorldCat I decided to look up one of my own books, Haggerty’s Curse. I found it listed in five places, some that were a surprise and others that I knew about. There were libraries I knew had multiple copies that weren’t listed.  Better World Books Inc. was at the top of the list. The Class descriptor was 823.  When I clicked on my name I was reminded of something else I’d written and is located in the Montana Historical Society: Comprehensive bibliography of books dealing with General Thomas Francis Meagher,  although this is out of date since I complied it in 2000. My newest book, Kylie’s Song, was published in fall of 2011 and not listed in World Cat.

2.       In OAIster I found some pictures from South Dakota from the 1890’s. One was American Soldiers gather up dead Sioux Indians after the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, 1892. Another one was a Birdseye view of a canyon in Wounded Knee, S.D., Jan. 1, 1891

Lesson 6.

EBooks on EbscoHost

For my first search I searched on Mission, S.D. and found a book called Deadliest Enemies   Making of Race Relations on and off the Rosebud Reservation by Thomas Biolsi, 2001. Just skimming through this book made me want to read it and learn the history of the town I recently moved to. It was full of historical data and examples of injustices.

On the second search for Constitution Day I found no relevant hits, maybe because it isn’t considered a federal holiday.

For the third search I picked Nebraska since it my nearest neighbor and found several hits that were relevant starting with a book on Omaha. The second one on the list was about America’s historical trials, but after that the hits were on Financial Aid. Not sure how that happened.

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Lesson 5 Gale Virtual Reference Library

I researched literary criticism of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which I’m embarrassed to say that I have never read. Gale Virtual Reference Library gave a chapter by chapter summary of the book (which I can see students reading instead of actually reading the book) and also literary criticism. I was surprised by how many of the great authors of his time that totally disliked the book, but the best comment I read was by Hemingway who said that nothing good has been written since.

I did research on zinc, both on what foods it is found in and what physical complaints it was good for.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health, v.5 2^nd ed. C. 2006. I found it was useful for wound healing, bone formation, clear skin, relief from yeast infections, low testosterone, rheumatoid arthritis, and a memory aide.

I looked through some of the books, including information on Sept. 11^th and read some first person accounts. I also read an article from Stephen Currie’s Lucent Terrorism Library on the Irish Republican Army which I’ve done a great deal of research on for a book proposal I was working on years ago.

Proquest April 12, 2012

Proquest

1.       I did my search on one of my favorite characters in history, Thomas Francis Meager.  I found an article in the Civil War Times entitled: “Thomas Francis Meagher;   a perspective on the complex General Meagher” and another article “Oh God, What a pity: the Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg and the creation of a myth” also from the same publication.

1a. I looked at the Piedmont Valley Library blog and would have to agree that using Proquest is a much cheaper alternative to buying library journals and would save time by just consulting Proquest on specific topics I’m interested in, rather than reading through a whole journal.

2.       I did a search of the publications and found an article in School Library Journal on “What Teens are really reading.”

SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher

Today I used SIRS Discover and SIRS Issues Researcher for the first time.

Instead of coming up with a different animal, I stuck with the armadillo, after remembering a fairly recent David Letterman Show where Jungle Jack Hannah brought his animals, including an armadillo. David Letterman was terrified of the animal, not because it was ferocious or had sharp teeth or poison venom, but because of the link between armadillos and leprosy. I didn’t realize that they are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy and they are used for research on the disease.

From Wild Lexile 1090

I also found another article that discussed how they were named by the Spanish, a word that meant little armored man. The native people were superstitious of the animal because they thought of them as grave robbers.

From    Wild Outdoor Life  Lexile 1090

Country Research: Scotland

There were several categories under the country such as: People, Daily Life, Language, Food, Dress, Arts & Music, Religion, Holidays, Traditions & Folklore, and Fun facts. It also included a map of the United Kingdom.

Maps of the World:

I picked Ireland Before the Normans c1100. The legend included

MIDE- over-kingdoms

Airthir-Sub-Kingdoms and territories

UA Neill-Principal dynastic surname

UA Bric-Lesser dynastic surnames

Symbol for a town- trading town

I found out that many of the trading towns in 1100 A.D. are the same large cities of today, except in Northern Ireland, where there were no large towns at that time.  Such areas as Belfast and Derry were not heavily populated at that time.

In Database Features I picked Fiction and looked at the short story Night Run by Sherry Shahan from Highlights for Children Dec. 2010. I thought this story about dogsledding might be of interest to students since a young person won the famous Iditarod Sled Race this year.

SIRS Issues Researcher

I watched one of the clips on Obesity which modeled how to do research and use facts.

I used the topic Censorship and concentrated on book banning. I read an article about a book  And Tango Makes Three on two males penguins watching over an egg that caused controversy because of homosexual themes. I also read about the controversial new version of Huckleberry Finn for use in schools that has been sanitized by substituting less controversial words. There was also an article on Paypal's decision to censure books that find too controversial because of sexual themes. This has been a popular topic on many of the writing listservs I belong to.

Learning Express Library

I was really impressed with the variety of courses offered. This would be a great resource for people looking for jobs and wanting to improve their skills.
I chose to take the Citizenship Test. As a history major in college I heard stories about how difficult this test was and how it was used to keep Blacks from being able to vote in the South. I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the questions, but I still missed more than I should even with a high school education and B.A. in History. I can understand why the path to citizenship takes several years of study for immigrants coming over who don't have exposure to our history.
I also took the first class on business writing. I have a large staff under me and feel writing memos and emails will be an effective way to let them know about policies and any changes.

World Book Challenge

     I enjoyed looking at all the different versions of World Book. Information retrieval has certainly changed from the days when parents would cave to encyclopedia salesman coming door to door and buy a set that might already be somewhat outdated before the children were old enough to do serious research. I know I have a set gathering dust in my basement at home back in Kansas that I doubt we ever used more than a couple times.
    I did my challenge on River Otters because whenever I go to a zoo or wildlife park, these frisky animals are the most entertaining with their constant motion. They always look like they are having a good time. I learned about the habitat and found pictures of them in World Book Online Kids, but there was much more in-depth information about them in the World Book Online Reference Center.
     I used World Book Online Reference Center to look up the country of Scotland. There were so many resources to choose from. I am interested in this country of my ancestors and hope that someday they will be a free nation once again. I have gotten weird looks for my bright yellow Scottish National Party window sticker over the years, but it does help me locate my car in a large parking lot. There were many articles in various formats on Scottish history, government, and current events that were helpful.

First blog in the SDL Library Challenge

Even though I have been a librarian for many years, I think the electronic resources assignment will be a challenge for me. Most recently I have worked in school librarian for the last thirteen years. At one high school we did temporarily have access to some of the electronic databases, but the students didn't use them enough to continue the subscription. They were all about jumping on Google to find their answer. I did try to teach them how to narrow down their search perimeters so they didn't get hundred thousands of hits, but they never seemed to listen, perferring to learn things the hard way, or just waste all their time. At the upper elementary level, where I was the last four years, the students had computer classes where they learned to do some basic computer research.

I will be anxious to learn how to use all these electronic resources to help my library patrons.